


The Search

by choriarty



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-18 20:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1442518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choriarty/pseuds/choriarty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Heroes search to tie up ends, and those who are not look to keep those ends open.<br/>Those who think they are one may find themselves being the other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Coming back from my biiiiiig writing hiatus, in which I just did not write. Ha...  
> Anyways! I'm hoping on making this a longer story with lots of pairings. I have not tagged them all in yet, since I'm not done, but as I add more I will edit the story and add tags.  
> I want to include many cameos and fluff and all of that good stuff with COPIUS AMOUNTS OF PLOT AND ANGST! YAY!!  
> If you readers find any spelling mistakes of grammar errors, feel free to leave a comment so I can add it! Any feedback would be loved, and I LOVE anyone who reads this! Thanks!

After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve had spent a lot of time searching. A lot of time searching and thinking about things. Sam was always there, and it did not take long before he learned the glazed look on the captain’s face when he was thinking. Sam thought that all of this thinking could not be good for Steve. At first, he would shake the man awake, or snap his fingers in front of the other’s face until he snapped out of it. After a while he stopped worrying. Not because he did not care, but because he knew a man like Steve had to have time ti think. He just wished it was not in the middle of a stakeout.

“On your left.” Sam grinned as he reached over his friend and fired the first shot into a group of mercenaries. The ignition of gunpowder woke Steve Rogers from his daydream. He quickly shook it off and gave a look to Sam, who shrugged and fired his sniper rifle for the third time. The captain leapt over their cover and dove into battle, slamming a gunman with his shield and punching another in the face.

***

The info they found was stuff they already knew, but maybe more vague than the last. More articles and messages about this ‘Winter Soldier’ without any actual information. Nothing recent, anyways. Sam stood guard, watching Captain America’s fingers fly across the keyboard. The pilot knew that he would not smash the counter, yell in frustration and desperation, and throw a chair against a wall because all they ever found was information they already knew or did not need to know.

That was not who Steve was.

Rogers straightened up from his hunched position over the computer and let out a deep breath. “Let’s go,” Sam said. “I know a good breakfast place a couple miles back the way we came. The waitress knows me.”

The captain gave a tired grin. “I’d like that.”

***

“I thought I told you to never come back here, Wilson.”

“I couldn’t help myself,” Sam laughed and shrugged. “The coffee here is amazing.”

The waitress sighed and shook her head, making her ponytail sway from side to side. “Be glad that Jack isn’t here, or else he would chew your head off for being gone so long.”

The man gave such a cartoon shudder that his friends laughed. Both him and the waitress bickered and joked and Steve’s mind wandered. He stared out the window at the rising sun, watching red and gold splash across the landscape like a canvas. He thought about the weeks that had passed and the ground they had taken since they started. When he managed to come back down to Earth, coffee had already been plunked down on their booth table and Sam was fiddling with his phone.

“I ordered for you already,” the pilot assured Steve about a question he had not asked yet. “Coffee’s gonna get cold if you don’t drink it soon.”

“Sorry, Sam,” Steve picked up his mug and breathed in the smell. It was heavenly. He was tempted to exercise his super healing abilities and just endure the pain of burning his tongue in order to drink it sooner. He decided not so and blew on it, causing steam to waft towards his partner.

Sam looked up and grinned. “Smells good, doesn’t it?”

“Sure does.”

“Hey, Steve…”

“Yeah?”

“Relax a bit more, why don’t you?”

Steve grinned, chuckling into his coffee before taking a sip. It tasted better than it smelled. He looked out the window once more before answering.

“Maybe.”

***

_Explosions. Fire. Screaming. Someone screamed. He was too busy to care. He needed to keep going. Someone was in his way. In a second he cried out as well. Men ran away and came towards him. The ones who ran were smart, the others were dead. There was the sound of a bullet ricocheting off of metal, and his arm felt impact. He was losing his touch._   
_The explosives were placed and set. He left fighting his way out one at a time. At last, at the final door, he felt sun on his face and warm wind at his side. Cement walls gave way to a desert landscape. He took several seconds to breathe in the smell of the Earth, and then clicked the detonator. The ground rumbled underneath his feet as he walked._

_Pay for your sins, Bucky Barnes._


	2. Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plans are interrupted, and someone is taken.

“You’re an idiot.”

“You know, it seemed smart at the time.”

“It really didn’t.”

“Well, it seemed smart to me.”

“Yes, and now you have a cold,” Jemma Simmons took the cold, damp cloth away from Skye’s forehead.

“Wait- that felt good. Put it back,” Skye whined, reaching towards the rag.

“No. You don’t get the cloth back because you jumped into a lake,” Jemma held it farther away as the hacker leaned forwards.

“It was to get the bad guy! Pleeeaase?”

There was the sound of a sliding door and Fitz walked in with hot soup. “Delivery for sick- oh come on, you guys! Get a room! Preferably not this one!”

The two girls looked at each other and turned a bright shade of red. Skye suddenly found the wall to her left to be extremely interesting, while Jemma whipped around to Leo and started waving her arms in protest. “No- it’s not- we’re not…”

“Yeah, okay, I get it,” Leo rolled his eyes and walked past his stuttering friend, placing the tray on a table. “How’re you feeling, Skye? Damp?”

“Ha ha,” Skye retorted half-heartedly. “Very funny. Just because I have a cold doesn’t mean you’re the funny guy now.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve always been the funny one.”

“Uh, excuse me, Fitz? You’re the geeky, high-tech guy of the group. You can’t be two TV tropes at the same time!”

“Who says? It’s 2014! A little close-minded much.”

“Okay,” Simmons butted in. “That’s enough. Time for you to go. Get. Go go go.”

Fitz gave a fake whine as his friend walked towards the door and he was physically removed from the room. Jemma closed the door behind her and elbowed him, earning a laugh and an elbow back, which she dodged.

They continued this until they suddenly and abruptly bumped into someone taller. The two of the looked up slowly and came face to face to a flat-faced Ward.

“Briefing room, two minutes,” he said plainly.

***

“I’ll make this short and quick,” Agent Coulson wasted no time in pulling up the footage on the screen. Skye sneezed. “We’re on our way to the next assignment already. Our perp strikes quick and without warning, so we need to follow this lead or we’ll lose them. Also, bless you.”

“Thanks,” Skye sniffed.

More footage rolled across. “This guy has been striking Hydra bases for the past week without a warning or a trace. We don’t know who he is or his motive, but his frequent raids have been putting our recon mission in jeopardy. Leads and moles we had in different locations have been eliminated because of this.”

“Well, excluding the cons, don’t the pros outweigh them?” Skye asked, nose stuffed. “I mean, he’s getting rid of the bad guys, shouldn’t SHIELD be happy? Or, what’s left of it, anyways.”

“Not this time,” Ward said. “SHIELD doesn’t usually like other people helping either.”

The hacker sighed and mumbled something about ‘why can’t we just let them do our jobs for once? I mean he’s not hurting anyone… except maybe the bad guys—‘

“That’s enough,” Phil announced loudly. “We’re almost here.”

Before the plane had any time to land, and before anyone had a second to make a comment, there was an explosion. The ground moved from under their feet and each of them grabbed for something to hold on to. Jemma lost her footing before she could react and fell on her behind and Skye grabbed her ankle. Fitz could only hold onto Ward’s arm for dear life.

“May!” Agent Coulson barked.

“Already on it,” she grunted, sprinting as well as she could towards the cockpit.

“What was that?” Skye struggled to take Simmons’ hand and there was another wave, tipping the plane once more. Phil groaned and touched his earpiece.

“What’s happening?”

“You won’t like it,” May’s voice was strained coming over the channel. “We need to land. Right now.”

“Hold on!” Coulson announced.

***

The plane overhead was not commercial, and it was not one of Hydra’s. The man below squinted and growled when he caught the image emblazed along the side like a large target. They would blow his cover for sure. So much for sneaking in.

Then again, it could be used as a distraction. He had already taken out all but one of the anti AA guns. If he revealed the plane to security, then they would be focused on them and not the fact that he was planting explosives. If he worked fast enough, then the aircraft could leave mostly unscathed.

Mostly.

The Winter Soldier moved his way into the electrical closet, taking care of a few ‘obstacles’ along the way, and began to unplug and plug chords. His fingers moved danced across the keyboard as his plan began to take form.

Men in the watch room spat out their coffee and stood up as their screens began to disconnect and blink out. One of them ran for security and another hit the console like his old television at home. In a flash, all of the screens showed a speck in the sky. The guard squinted and zoomed in once, twice, three times until he could see the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft in the sky.

Soldiers stomped down the hall past the electrical closet, the door open and the room empty of anyone.

***

The rough landing shook everyone up like one of 007’s martinis. Fitz needed to use the toilet, he said, and held his stomach as he shuffled off. Skye’s head felt like it had left her body and her ears felt like they would explode. She hissed about head colds and ear popping.

Coulson was already out of the plane. He needed to keep the guards off of their back as the team gathered their wits and stomachs. Dust and sand had been swept up into the air and it was impossible to see anything, the only clue of a firefight being the gunshots that echoed out into the wastes.

There was the crunching of rocks underneath a boot, and Phil crept around the cover he had taken to flank his enemy. A shot rang out as he hit the man’s leg, making him fall on the ground in pain. Ward cut through the clouded air and silenced the man with a quick punch.

The two men gained ground sparingly with the impaired vision that they had, and they only knew if they had taken someone out when they heard it.

Then, just as quickly as the battle had started, it stopped. Dust began to clear from the air and there was a silence, a dead silence. Phil could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Something was not right.

“I’ll go ahead,” Agent Ward said. “See if there is anyone left…”

“Stop,” Coulson put a hand in front of him. “We are not alone here, remember? Our target is still around.”

“He probably ran when we landed.”

“No… He leaves after making sure there is nothing left. I haven’t heard any explosives since we landed, have you?”

Ward looked away, acknowledging that his boss was right. He stepped back and kept watch as the older agent carefully walked forwards.

Just as Phil was nearing the end of the dust cloud, a Hydra soldier came out from behind their cover. They shouted and aimed their gun, but before the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent could fire his weapon, someone came up from behind and snapped the enemy’s neck with a sickening sound. The body hit the dirt and only the man behind stood there, watching Phil.

Phil knew who it was the moment he saw him. Even with the mechanical arm and the long hair, the agent would know that face anywhere. Before him stood Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s best friend. Yet… Bucky Barnes was dead, and had been for sixty years.

The Winter Soldier’s eyes widened as soon as he knew that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent recognized him. Even if he was not the enemy, even if he was not his mission, anyone who knew who he was needed to be dealt with. His left foot kicked off the ground into a sprint and Phil panicked. This man was fast, inhuman fast. He could never outrun him, not even in his dreams. As he turned to flee, his vocal chords screamed out through the sand in the air.

“RUN!”

There was a crack as something hard and metal came in contact with his skull, and then Phil Coulson felt nothing more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god, I am so rusty. I haven't written fan fiction in ages. Don't be gentle.

**Author's Note:**

> Btw, I know this chapter is short. It's the prologue. Sue me.


End file.
